


Make You Scared

by pinkevilbob



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Body Horror, F/M, Medical Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-15 11:23:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21252590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkevilbob/pseuds/pinkevilbob
Summary: Things are going bump in the night under Caleb's bed and he's going to get to the bottom of it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!! It halloween! I love Halloween! Candy! Costume! Monsters! Spooks! The Great Pumpkin!
> 
> I wanted to do one last monstery fic for Halloween, so here it is!

Caleb tossed and turned in bed. A low moan like a dying cry echoed in the room. Rolling over, Caleb covered his ears with his pillow, but it did little to block out the noise. Ignoring it was no use either. With a groan, he sat up, got out of bed, and knelt down on the floor. Really, this was something that he should have done months ago. He lowered his head to look under the bed. "Look,” he said, “I don't know who you are, but I have work in the morning and need a good night's sleep. So stop it."

The moaning stopped for a moment and then continued even louder.

"Really? Is this how it's going to be?" Caleb sighed and rolled his eyes. He had hoped that this would resolve itself, but that was obviously not the case. "I'm well aware that there's something or someone under here on some kind of messed up mission to make my life miserable, but it's not going to work. I got rid of the whatevers that came before you and I'll get rid of the whatevers that come after you."

The moaning cut itself short. "I'm scaring you not making you miserable, and I'm not a whatever. I'm a monster." The voice was feminine and had a hint of a smile to it.

"Well you are not doing a good job of it, so please just stop," Caleb said. This was the first time he had actually spoken to one of the creatures that insisted on hiding under his bed, but he had been aware of them since the first one appeared the year before.

"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm a super good scarer. You're just a tough client," the voice from under the bed said.

Caleb frowned at this. "Client? Why would I pay for such services?"

"Well, not client-client, but target? Though it sounds kinda mean that way, but I was assigned to you, so I'm going to do my best to scare you."

Caleb stared under the bed. It was too dark to see anything under there. "Well, as you can see, I do not find you scary, so you can be on your way and tell whoever keeps sending you monsters to leave me alone." The monster under the bed muttered something, but Caleb couldn't hear what it was. "What was that?"

"I said, I can't! ...This is my last chance okay!" If Caleb didn't know better, he would've sworn that it sounded like the monster was crying. "They say that if I can't scare you that I'm fired, and that’d just break my mama's heart, so I have to scare you."

"Oh," Caleb said softly. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not. If you were sorry, you'd be scared."

Caleb rubbed his arms. "You're a monster, ja? I'm certain that you must be terrifying looking. If you came out, I'm certain to be scared."

"Oh! Oh, you're right!" The monster sounded excited and adorable. "Okay, so back up I’ll need room, but I won't tell you when I'm coming out so it will be a surprise for you, okay?"

"Ja, okay." Caleb got up and went to the wall, turning on the lamp so that he could see her better.

A light blue hand first came out from under the bed. Claws of darker blue grew from the ends of them, but they almost looked like manicured nails. Another hand came out and a head popped out. He could only see the top of it. Curled horns were nestled in a nest of curly, wild, blue hair. The rest of the monster came out awkwardly crawling, and at one point, she got a hoof caught under the bed. Once freed, she jumped up with an excited smile. Fangs flashed menacingly, but the effect was muted by being under a button nose sprayed with little blue freckles. She wore poofy blue dress that flared out around her and her tail that wagged behind her had a little heart on the end. Caleb had to cover his mouth; she was cute.

"Are you scared?" she asked with a smile, but it faded. "You're not scared, are you?"

"Nein," Caleb admitted.

The monster pouted becoming even cuter and Caleb could feel his heart flutter. "S%$^! You really are unscarable."

Caleb shrugged. "I wouldn't say that. I just don't find monsters scary."

"Ugh!" The monster flopped backwards onto the bed showing Caleb all the frills and fluff under her dress.

Caleb turned away, his face turning red. "Why is it so important to scare me? I really thought you'd people give up by now."

The monster stared up at the ceiling pointing at something or another up there. "Cause, people give off this thing, this essence, when they're scared I guess? And so we can collect it and gather it and use it to do sciencey things or something with it. I don't really know all the details for it. I'm just supposed to scare you. Anyways, yours is like super super potent and useful, so we need it." She dragged her finger in the air drawing unseen pictures.

A sour feeling filled Caleb's stomach. "I'm not special. Can't you go to someone else's bed?"

"No. I don't make the assignments. And I was assigned to you to prove that I can do this, that I can scare people. I kinda screwed up on my first assignment, so I got a really tough one to show my stuff."

"What happened during your first assignment?" Caleb asked. "If I can ask."

The monster sat up with a wicked smile. "So! My mom had this like super important lord guy that she needed to scare, but like she couldn't go, so I went in her place. And it was super boring, so I decided to spice it up, and he might have ended up in the middle of town in lingerie."

Caleb raised an eyebrow trying to hide a smile. "Might have?"

"Okay, so he totally did," the monster confessed with a big grin. Her tail wagged about. "It was really pretty all red and purple, so really I don't get why people are so mad. I mean that should count as scaring him. Also it was super funny."

"Funny and scary. I'm surprised that they didn't appreciate that," Caleb said.

The monster nodded. "I know, right? So I'm assigned to you, Mr. Unscarable."

Caleb rubbed his arms looking away. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault," the monster said. "Oh! I didn't tell you my name yet. I'm Jester!"

"Caleb Widogast."

Jester frowned in confusion. "But the assignment said that your name is-"

"My name is Caleb Widogast now," Caleb said firmly.

Jester eyed him for a moment and then grinned. "Okay! Caleb's much better name anyways."

"Danke," Caleb said. "You're going to get in trouble for not scaring me tonight. I feel like I should owe you something."

"Not really. I've got a whole week to scare you, and I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeve. You are going to be so scared by the end of the week," she said with a huge smile flashing her cute fangs.

Caleb wasn't going to mind being haunted by her, but he wasn't going to look forward to disappointing her by not being afraid. He smiled anyways. "I look forward to it."

"You should. Anyways, it was Ikithon requesting your scare and-"

"Ikithon?!" Caleb could he feel his heart pounding in his throat. This couldn't be possible. He knew that there was something about Ikithon that was unnatural, but a monster? Knowing what he was changed little, but it was still bothersome to learn.

Jester nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, he's a big science guy."

"And you work for him?" Caleb trembled against the wall and rubbed his arms harder.

"I mean he's in another department so he’s not my boss, but the scare residue goes to him. Why?" Jester looked nervous and bit her lip. "Do you know him?"

Caleb nodded slowly. "Ja, in a way I do." His mind raced. He was supposed to be safe. After all the trouble he went through to escape and start a new life, Ikithon found him again with little effort. Ikithon had been sending monsters after him for months, and Caleb never even thought to question his safety. "I have to go."

"What?" Jester asked.

Caleb grabbed a backpack from his closet. It was already full with clothes, cash, a fake id, and other supplies he'd need on the run. He'd have to get a burner cell phone, but only after he called Veth for one last goodbye. "Thank you for letting me know."

"What's going on?" Jester asked. "Caleb, you're scared. What happened? Is it Ikithon?"

"I'm not letting him get his hands on me again. Looks like you did your job, but it's just going to be a one night engagement." Caleb smiled at her sadly putting the backpack on. "I hope things go well for you, Jester."

Jester grabbed his hand for a moment, but Caleb pulled away from her. "Wait. Running in the human world isn't going to help you. We'll just find you anyways."

"No, no. That can't be right!" Caleb had worked so hard. "He's not getting me. I won’t go back there!"

"He won't." Jester placed a gentle hand on Caleb's arm. "I know a place where he won’t be able to find you. At least not as easily."

Caleb stared at her. "Where?"

Jester bit her lip and glanced under the bed nervously. "The monster world. It's technically not allowed and really dangerous for humans but-"

"I'm willing to take that risk," Caleb said. It would mean abandoning everything he knew and leaving his best friend, but he was not letting Ikithon get him. And Veth would be safer this way. "How do we get there?"

Jester pointed under the bed.

"Then let's do this."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It continues!! I'm kinda making this one up as I go, so hopefully you guys enjoy it!

Going to between the human world and the monster world always felt funny. Jester couldn’t quite describe what it felt like. It was almost like being peanut butter squished out of a sandwich, but much more solid. Or like putting a coin into a vending machine, but softer. There wasn't a word for it. She wouldn't call it unpleasant, but she never looked forward to it.

Caleb looked positively sick when he came out of the human world. His pale skin was now almost green. "Are you going to puke, Caleb?" Jester asked. He nodded slightly. "There's a trash can over there." Barely making it in time, he rushed over to the can and revisited his dinner there.

Jester had to hold back a laugh. She felt terrible for Caleb, but he was making all sorts of silly sounds as he retched.

"Who is that?" a shrill voice asked. Jester turned to see Nott where she left her. The tiny lab tech had been assigned to wait for Jester since Caleb was such an important scare subject. Usually scarers were sent out alone, but it was almost like they didn’t trust Jester or something.

"Nott, this is Caleb," Jester said waving a hand towards Caleb.

He weakly raised up a hand not lifting his head out of the trash can. "Hallo."

"Uh, hi." Nott turned to Jester and hissed. "Is that a human? What were you thinking? He can't be here."

"I know, but he was in danger up there and I couldn't just leave him, so I was thinking that maybe I could just hide him here." Jester knew that it was a stupid idea, but she had to try and help him in some way. There was something about him that tugged on her heart strings.

Nott looked over at him. "It doesn't matter what kind of danger he's in up there. You can't just bring him down here. Leave human problems to humans. Where did you even find him?"

Jester stared down at the ground, messing with her skirt. "Technically, it's not a human problem. He might need hiding from a monster."

Nott's eyes grew even larger than usual. "What?"

"He's apparently had a run in with our kind before, and I couldn't just leave him up there," Jester said.

Nott's green skin went pale. "Is he your assignment?"

Caleb finally pulled his head out of the trash can wiping his mouth off with his shirt sleeve. "Ja, that would be me. The name's different on the assignment though."

"He's not bad or mean or anything," Jester said. "And he was super scared of Ikithon's name and he shouldn't even know it, so he must've been down here before, so really, I'm not showing him anything he hasn't already seen before."

Nott sighed as she closed the laptop. "I know."

"You know?" Jester asked.

"I’ve met him before."

* * *

Caleb stared at the strange tiny green woman that Jester called Nott. She had large bat-like ears and sharp snaggle teeth. All sorts buttons adorned her in the form of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings. If he hadn’t already emptied out all of his stomach contents, Caleb probably would’ve been sick all over again at the sight of her. There was an unsettling wrongness to the sight of her. But there was something about her voice that was comforting. "I'm sorry, but we've never met before," he said.

Nott smiled at him in a pitying fashion. "I wouldn't have expected you to recognize me when I looked like this." She fiddled with the necklace of buttons. "I didn't want to scare you." With the flip of one of the buttons, Nott was no longer there. Instead there was a short woman chubby with warm brown skin and two shoulder length braids. Veth.

Caleb collapsed. Nothing made sense. He was in a dark, dark alleyway that had a ladder that lead up to his bed and the colors all felt wrong and off and his best friend, the only person he trusted in 15 years turned out to be a monster. "What?"

"He's very scared," Jester said looking at the strange watch on her wrist. It must've been locked on his vitals or something.

Veth, Nott, Veth frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry, Caleb. but I couldn't tell you."

"Were, were you working with Ikithon this whole time? Did he order you to help me escape?" It was Veth that unlocked the doors. She'd told him at the time that she was a prisoner there too and that she needed help to escape. That was what motivated Caleb to keep going. But she was just a lie.

"No, it's not like that at all. I mean, I do work for Ikithon, but everyone in the science department does. But he didn't know that I let you go. He was furious when he found out you escaped," Veth said.

Caleb closed his eyes. He could stand to look at her. "Change back. Get rid of that lie."

There was the sound of buttons clicking together. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to scare you. And I know that the point of humans is to be scared, but not like that," Nott said. Her voice was shriller in this form. It sounder what Veth did sometimes on the phone. She liked checking on him to make sure that he was okay. That he was doing okay and eating enough and making friends. He really hadn't done any of those things, but those were things that Ikithon wouldn't have asked to be checked on. "What he was doing to you was wrong."

"What was he doing to Caleb?" Jester asked.

"It's nothing for you to worry about," Caleb said. “I’m not going back there.”

Nott looked around nervously. “But you shouldn’t be here. It’s not meant for humans.”

“Ikithon would find Caleb in the human world though. I had to take him somewhere,” Jester said. She sounded so scared and uncertain.

Nott worried the buttons on the necklace the way Caleb had seen her do before as Veth. “And you’re sure that you can find a safe place for him?”

Jester nodded. “I think so. I mean Ikithon’s just one monster and he has liver spots. There’s nothing scary about that.”

“I wouldn’t agree with that,” Caleb said.

Jester put her hands on her hips and pouted. “Caleb! I’m super good at hiding things. For starters, we can’t have you going out looking like this.”

Caleb looked down at his pajamas. “I didn’t think to change before we left. But I’ve got clothes in my backpack.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Jester said rolling her eyes. “You’re just so human looking.”

“I am human. Nott can look human, and Ikithon did too,” Caleb said. Though there was something unsettling and wrong with Ikithon’s eyes.

Nott shook her head. “I can only do it for short amounts of time. And I don’t have any reason to here. But I might have an idea. Follow me.”

Caleb kept close to Jester as they hurried down the streets. Though they were more like the disjointed idea of the concept of streets. Nothing quite lined up right. He kept stumbling and tripping while Jester and Nott walked like it was completely normal. Everything felt wrong like there were crumbs under Caleb’s skin constantly itching. Anytime they passed somebody, Caleb would have to crouch behind Jester.

Eventually, they got to their destination. It was a small apothecary, but it looked like there was an apartment built into it. “You wait out here,” Nott said before scurrying in.

“Um, so, how do you like it here?” Jester asked. She leaned against the wall staring up at the nothing sky. Even though nothing was right, she was beautiful.

“I’ll manage.”

Jester’s tail tapped little rhythms on the wall. “Hmm. So you know Nott.”

“She was Veth to me. Left me notes and tried to cheer me up after each experiment.” Caleb sat down on the ground next to Jester. “Veth saved my life.”

“Nott’s a lot of fun. Most of the science people here are super boring and all ‘I’m so much better than you’, but not Nott.” Jester grinned down at Caleb. "We're really good detectives, you know."

"Ja?" Caleb didn't dare look up so close to her skirt.

Jester giggled. "Yeah! Cause one time there was some paperwork of my mom's that went missing and people were all upset and stuff, so me and Nott found it." She paused for a moment. "Do you think my mom will like you?"

"I know nothing about your mother," Caleb pointed out.

"Well, yeah, I know, but do moms like you?" Jester asked.

Caleb shrugged. He had lost his long ago when Ikithon took him. "I don't know. Maybe."

"My mom's super nice and the best. You'll like her."

"That's good, but I don't think I'll meet her," Caleb said.

Jester leaned over him. "But, that's where we're going. You have to meet my mom. You'll be hiding in the attic."

Caleb shook his head. "That'll put you in too much danger." Besides the thought of staying in one place here made him nervous. "It's better if I keep on the move. Does human money work here?"

"Kinda?"

"I'll take my chances with that." Caleb had a lot of experience with living on the run. "Jester, thank you for your help, but once I have a disguise, I can't keep putting you in danger. And I can move faster on my own."

Jester shook her head her curls shaking about furiously. "You don't know about anything down here and it's not safe for a human to be alone here. Besides, I'm really good at hiding. I used to do it all the time."

"Nein. I can't risk your mother," Caleb said banking on Jester valuing her mother over everything else.

Jester frowned. "Oh. Right." Her brow furrowed and it was adorable. And then she smiled. "So we won't go to my mom’s. We'll be on the run together."

"What?" Caleb paled. "But, you can't."

"Yeah, I can. I mean, between you and me, most people here don't take me seriously, so I don't think it'd surprise them if I just disappeared for a few weeks without a word." She nodded. “Yeah, should work.”

Caleb stared at her. “You can’t be serious.”

Jester pouted. “I’m being super serious, Caleb. I want to help you.”

“Some people can’t be helped, Jester.”

The door to the apothecary opened and Caleb pressed his back to the wall. Nott stepped out of the store carrying a box heaped with old clothes. A second monster close to her size followed her out carrying two bulging bags. He was a greenish brown with messy brown hair that blended into mutton chops on the sides of his face. His features were much more rounded than Nott's and a small pair of spectacle rested at the end of his nose. "Where do these go, Nott?" he asked.

"Back here," Nott said going into the alleyway. Caleb tried to hide behind Jester, but she stepped out of the way. "Yeza, this is Caleb."

Yeza stared at Caleb his mouth agaped. "A human. Oh, sorry, I'm Yeza, Nott's husband. She's been telling me a lot about you. She's been worrying about you."

Nott poked an elbow into Yeza's ribs. "No need to tell him that," she hissed. She placed the box of clothes at Caleb's feet. "I collect clothes, so there's probably enough here to hide you."

"Danke," Caleb said. "You really don't have to do this."

Nott waved away his concerns. "It's nothing. I don't have any use for these anyways. They’re much too big for my family. It's better if they're used by someone who needs them."

Jester rifled through the clothes with a frown. "I won't be able to make him look pretty with these, but I think we can make these work." She pulled out an oversized coat and forced Caleb into it.

"Is this a particularly monstrous style?" Caleb asked. It looked like a normal brown coat to him.

"Nah, but it covers you and no one can tell how thin you are," Jester said.

Caleb frowned. "Am I too thin for a monster?"

"Not really, I mean you could stand to put on a few pounds, but this will make you harder to recognize." Jester went through the bags and grabbed out a hat.

It was huge and sat low on Caleb's head. "I can barely see."

"We can hold hands then." Caleb didn't need to see her to hear her smile.

Caleb quickly became grateful for the hat as it hid his blush. The end of a scarf stuck out of one of the bags. It was blue and shabby and had seen much better days, but it was Caleb's favorite color. He wrapped it around his neck.

Jester frowned. "It's kinda ugly, but you're hidden. No one would ever think a human would wear anything that ugly."

Caleb rolled his eyes. "You haven't met a lot of humans then."

"I'm glad I haven't then if that's how they dress," Jester said playfully sticking out her forked tongue.

"We should be going," Caleb said. Nott's face fell, but she tried to hide it. "One thing first though." Caleb crouched down in front of Nott. "Thank you. For everything."

Nott blushed looking away. "Oh, it was just some old clothes I had lying around. They didn't even fit us."

"No, I meant for everything. For helping me escape and being my friend afterwards." Before he could change his mind, Caleb gave her an awkward one armed hug.

Nott threw her arms around Caleb's neck and squeezed. "Stay safe," she whispered.

"Ja, I will. You stay safe too," Caleb said softly.

Nott released her hold on Caleb and took a step back. "You take care of him, Jester. He's not very good at doing it himself."

Caleb's cheeks turned red. "I'm not that bad." Though she may have had a point there.

"I will," Jester said. She took Caleb's hand. "Come let's go."

"Where are we going?" Caleb asked.

Jester grinned. "To the safest place I know; the Lavish Chateau."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It continues again! Right so I'm just doing fics for Nano, I'll probably be posting most of them as I go along, because if I wait too long, I just sometimes don't post stuff for months and hate every word I write. So posting as I go.
> 
> Oh yeah, the title of this fic comes for "Scared" by The Tragically Hip.

Jester was right when she called the Chateau lavish. It dripped with finery. Caleb had never been anywhere half as fancy as the hotel. Not in the human world and certainly not in the monster world. The colors still felt wrong to Caleb, but he was growing used to it and the hint of alien made the Chateau all the more alluring.

"Come on, Caleb," Jester said as Caleb paused to take it all in. She still held onto his hand and she made her way up the stairs. It was obvious that she had been there many times before. "Here we go!" Jester stopped a particularly ornate door. A tough looking minotaur stood in front of it. "Blude! Is my mom here?"

Blude nodded with a snort. "She is, but she's currently occupied."

Jester giggled. "Oh okay. This is my new friend, Caleb. He's kinda weird and shy, but he's super nice and is going to be hanging out with me for a bit."

"Hallo," Caleb said softly.

Blude eyed him and then nodded. "They're serving dinner still downstairs."

Jester perked up. "Oh, yes! Thank you, Blude!" She grabbed Caleb's hand again and led him downstairs. "Oh man Caleb, you are in a treat. The food is super good here."

"Do you visit here often?” Caleb asked.

Jester shook her head. “Nope! Mama and I live here.”

Caleb looked around. He couldn’t imagine living in such a place.

“Come on. You’re going to love dinner here.” Jester pulled him along to the restaurant in the hotel.

“Can humans even eat what monsters do?” Caleb asked. “I don’t even know what monsters eat.”

Jester stopped and stared at him. “I didn’t think of that,” she whispered. “Oh crap! What if you can’t even eat food and then you starve and then taking you down here would be for nothing.” She ran her hands over her tail nervously.

Caleb was tempted to take one of her hands and try to calm her, but he wasn’t very good at that sort of thing. “We can try it. I’ve been down here before and didn’t starve.” The food wasn’t very good and all hospital fare, but he survived off of it. Though Ikithon might’ve had the food brought down for the test subjects. Ikithon was thorough to a fault.

“Oh, yeah.” Jester grinned and Caleb could feel his heart flutter. He had seen quite a few monster women since they were here, but none of them compared to Jester. “You’ll love it.”

Caleb stopped. “Is the restaurant as fancy as the rest of the hotel?”

“Yep and they have this really tasty thing with this broth that is super-” she paused and looked Caleb up and down. “There’s no way that they’d let you in dressed like that or let you keep your hat on.”

“I can’t eat with my scarf on anyways.” Caleb’s stomach grumbled its complaints.

Jester snickered as Caleb ducked his head down hiding even more. “We’ll go someplace else then.”

* * *

Someplace else being the monster equivalent of a burger joint. Technically it was a burger joint, but the shape of the buns was odd and the meat was the wrong color. The french fries were good though. Caleb rearranged his scarf so that he could slip fries through an opening and into his mouth. Jester also got him some chicken nuggets that looked suspect, but to be fair, Caleb was suspicious of most chicken nuggets.

Jester took a loud slurp of her milkshake. “So, what do you think?”

“No matter what world you are in, chicken nuggets’ true ingredients are unknown,” Caleb said. He took a cautious bite out of one. It didn’t poison him right out and it was as technically edible as a nugget was in his world.

Rolling her eyes, Jester stole a chicken nugget.

“Hey!” Caleb protested.

“I thought you didn’t like these?”

Caleb glowered. “It doesn’t stop them from being mine.”

Jester laughed and gave it back to him. “I’m sorry. I was just teasing.”

“Ja, I know.” Caleb smiled at her. There was something easy about being around her. “Where are we going to go?”

“After this? I figure we’d go back to the Chateau. My mom should be done soon,” Jester said.

Caleb shook his head. “I meant where do we go after the chateau. We can’t stay there long.”

“I know. It’s just,” Jester sighed and shrugged, “this is just a lot. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“I have,” Caleb said.

“When?” Jester asked.

Caleb took a fry, but didn’t eat it. “When I first escaped from Ikithon. Veth, Nott, gave me this backpack. I had a different fake id back then. Traveling place to place trying to be invisible, it was-”

“Hard?” Jester suggested.

“It was a lot. And I didn’t have anyone to miss me,” Caleb said. “You don’t have join me. You shouldn’t join me. You have a life and friends here. Don’t abandon it for me.”

Jester played with the straw of her milkshake making a point to stare downwards. “Not really. I mean I have Mama and Blude and Nott, but beyond that not really.”

“Someone as wonderful as you surely must have more friends than you can shake a stick at,” Caleb said.

Jester shook her head. “A lot of people wouldn’t agree with you on that one, Caleb.”

“Then there must be a lot of fools down here to not see how lucky they’d be to know you.”

“Well, that’s the thing. Not a lot of people know me. I mean they do now, but when I was little, I kinda had to hide a lot,” Jester said. She dabbed her fry into her milkshake and used it to draw pictures on napkins.

Caleb stared at her. “Hide?”

Jester nodded. “Yeah, see my mom was a super famous scarer and then there’s her side job and people wouldn’t want to hire her if they knew that she had a daughter.”

“That’s sexist.” Caleb pointed his fry at her. “At least that’s called sexist in my world.”

“Uh huh, it’s sexist here, but she still had to hide me. That doesn’t mean that she didn’t love me. She just had to hide me. So I’m super good at hiding and I’m used to it. I can help you hide too,” Jester said.

Caleb frowned. “It’s not that easy.”

“Yes it is,” Jester said.

“No it’s not. No one knew you existed, ja? Ikithon knows that I’m alive and he’s going to be looking for me once he realizes that I’m missing,” Caleb said. “No one was looking for you. No one realized that there was anything to look for.”

Jester slammed her hands down on the table. "I'm just trying to help!" she yelled and ran out of the restaurant.

Caleb stared helplessly as she disappeared out the doors. Only one thought ran through his mind. He screwed up.

* * *

Jester ran back to the hotel with tears in her eyes. She could barely see where she was going, but she didn't care. What Caleb said kept repeating in her head. It was good that no one knew about her that meant that herr mother's secret was safe, but that didn't mean she was unimportant. But the truth was that no one cared to find her mother’s secrets. And that indifference kept her family safe. But it still hurt. Jester wanted to be seen. When she was little she ran through scenes of someone accidentally finding her, but instead of her mom getting in trouble or people being disappointed in her, everyone was fascinated and awed by Jester and she'd be super popular. It would've never happened, but it was a nice day dream.

Stopping in front of the hotel, Jester wiped the tears out of her eyes and went inside calmly. She ascended the stairs like she didn't just yell at someone she thought could be her friend. Blude opened the door for her and Jester flashed him a smile. Her mother sat in front her mirror brushing her hair and spun around with a smile. "My little sapphire," she said brightly.

Jester leaned into her mother. "Hi mom."

"Oh what's the matter?" Jester's mother asked with the perfect amount of concern.

"Nothing Mama," Jester said. She was just being upset over silly little things and didn't need to bother her mom with them.

Jester's mom frowned. "Don't give me that. I've known you for far too long for you to hide your frowns from me. Now sit down." She got up from her chair and waved at Jester to sit down.

Jester had trouble saying to her mother and plopped down on the chair. Her mother stood behind her and began to comb her hair. "I got into a fight."

"What? Who was it? What happened?" The tone in her mom's voice was ready to begin and end wars.

"Not like that. I mean I got into an argument with an almost friend." Jester pouted. "He was being mean and dumb."

Her mother sighed. "That's part of having friends my little sapphire. It can be hard sometimes, but you need to know what arguments are worth ignoring and which ones are the signs to say goodbye."

"He said that no one knew to look for me," Jester said. "That I basically didn't exist. Well, maybe he didn't say it like that, but he was being mean."

"Oh, my little sapphire." Jester's mother wrapped her in a hug. "If only I could've put you on the display you deserved, but the world can be cruel sometimes. It's safer to be hidden."

Jester nodded but her stomach churned with the thought and how she left Caleb. "Mama? I might've been the one who was mean."

* * *

Caleb quickly finished his fries and stuffed the chicken nuggets into his pockets. As unappetizing as they were, they still counted as food and he couldn’t say no to a free meal. Part of him was tempted to go find Jester, but he knew that she was better off without him. The money that Jester used at the register was different from his, but from the way she talked, he could probably find some kind of shop where he could sell his cash for monster money. Apparently there was a market for human stuff. It’d be a little tricky to avoid questions on where he got it, but he’d manage.

As Caleb left the burger joint, he overheard a snippet of conversation and froze. "Yeah, it's all over the internet. Apparently someone totally saw a human down here."

"Yeah right. Has to be a hoax."

"I’m not lying, Phil. There's even a picture, see?"

"It's all blurry. There's no way it's real."

Caleb came back to his senses and hurried out of the restaurant. He had been seen. There was evidence of him being there. How could he be so dumb to have left his guard down? Of course hiding behind Jester wouldn't be enough. Now there was proof he was there and Ikithon was going to find him. It was stupid to think that he would ever get away.

But there was no way he was just going to give up now. Despite everything feeling wrong here in the monster world, Caleb's natural sense of direction was still with him. He'd just have to keep going in the opposite direction of where they exited his apartment and see if monsters had any form of public transportation. With any luck, he could get away for this city and find a place to lie low for a month before getting further away.

Caleb started to calm down. He's done this before and he'd just do it again. Distracted by his own thoughts, he walked into someone. "Oh sorry," Caleb said tugging his hat down lower.

A tall, yellow scaled monster smiled down at him. His teeth made Caleb feel like he was staring at the maw of a crocodile."Oh, that's quite alright, Bren."

Ice entered Caleb's veins. He knew that voice all too well. Ikithon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So giving you guys a heads up, starting the next chapter, this fics going to be a bit dark and have some body horror cause Ikithon. It will most likely have a happy ending, but um yeah I'm currently writing some messed up stuff.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So um, this chapter is pretty dark and Ikithon does some terrible things in it. I apologize now and deserve any and all complaints.

Jester hurried back to the burger joint after talking to her mom, but Caleb was gone. He must've wandered off after their fight, but there was no way he would be so dumb. It was dangerous for him. But Caleb did keep insisting that he could take care of himself on his own. She sighed and stared at her watch. It worked better when Caleb was in the human world, but it would still show the occasional flash of how Caleb was doing and his location, though location was less likely of being accurate.

The watch mainly showed static. She tried tapping it, but it only showed more static. "I really screwed up," Jester said to the watch. "But Caleb was being mean too, kinda." Flickering, the screen changed. Caleb was terrified.

Jester gasped and her stomach dropped. Caleb must've been in trouble. Or maybe he was just alone and didn't know what to do since he was all alone in a different world. But Caleb didn’t scare that easily. The only thing he was scared of was Ikithon.

Shaking the watch, Jester tried to will it to show Caleb's location. It flickered a little showing the chateau and then the burger joint. Jester groaned. These watches weren't made to work when the target was in the monster world. It was made to show the human world. Though it never worked very well for Caleb in the first place. "Come on," Jester whispered. "Just show me where Caleb is." The screen went black. "No! No no no no no no no no no." Did that mean something? Was Caleb dead?

All the blood drained from Jester's face. She failed. Maybe Caleb was being mean, but he probably wasn't trying to be and maybe Jester was overreacting a little. And now he was dead. Tears ran down her cheeks.

The watch beeped a little ditty and the screen turned back on. Caleb was still scared, but it went down a little from the spike. More importantly it showed that he was at the outskirts of the city in the old hospital. That place always gave Jester the creeps, but if going there was what it took to save Caleb, then she'd go there.

* * *

Caleb woke up in a panic and with a gag in his mouth. The air smelled familiar and his arms were strapped down to a bed. He didn't even need to look around to know where he was. Surrounding the bed were all sorts of screens, and Caleb was hooked up with all sorts of tubes and wires. His arms felt like a pincushion for all the needles sticking out of him. This was exactly the same as the last time. After all his insisting that he would never end up back here, Caleb was back under Ikithon's thumb.

The last thing he remembered before waking up was seeing Ikithon and then a stabbing sensation in his arm. Ikithon always liked poking Caleb with all sorts of needles.

The door to the room creaked open and Ikithon entered. He looked human like he did when Caleb was last there. Ikithon was tall and thin and looked sickly with weathered skin. It was his eyes that marked him as inhuman. They sat in too deep like he was wearing a mask. "Ah, you're awake I see," he said looking Caleb over like he was a fine cut of meat. "Are you ready for your next test?"

Caleb glared at him. Ikithon always treated what he was doing so lightly like Caleb was merely his student and not his test subject. The worst of it was that Caleb had no clue what Ikithon was trying to do. All Caleb knew what that Ikithon had a sick pleasure in pumping him full of chemicals.

"Ah, back to the silent treatment like old times," Ikithon said. "Still the petulant child, I see. Well, we don't need you to talk to get results." He jabbed a sharp needle into Caleb's arm and pushed down the plunger. Pain filled Caleb's veins and he struggled to not scream, but failed. Ikithon chuckled. "You certainly haven't changed a jot. But maybe with the right serum you will."

* * *

Bren was 17, but he was not an idiot. He had been emailing Ikithon for months. The man was a brilliant researcher and saw a great potential in Bren as an intern. When Ikithon had requested to meet in person, Bren insisted on bringing his parents. It should’ve been a smart idea.

It wasn’t.

* * *

Bren was 18, and he was very good at keeping track of time. It had been 297 days since Ikithon had captured him and his parents, 143 days since Bren had learned of his mother’s death, and 24 days since he had heard of his father’s passing. Each of those days were filled with tests and injections. And each day Bren had thought he had lost all hope.

But each day he found news ways to lose hope.

* * *

Bren was 23, and he was gagged. He discovered that the only way he could fight back was by biting, but Ikithon put an end to that quickly. The gag would be removed for meals, but those were short. Ikithon seemed pleased by this turn of events though. The old man(though Bren was hesitant to use the term man to describe Ikithon) loved to introduce new ways to torment Bren. Everytime Ikithon introduce some new torture, Bren thought that there was no way things could get worse.

He was always wrong.

* * *

He was 31, and he had a piece of paper in his hand. It was there when he woke up and he had no idea where it came from, but it was a change from his monotonous life. The note read ‘Are you alright?’. After being there so long hooked up to countless machines charting his vitals and plugged into ivs with who knows what in them, he no longer had a concept of alright or even self. What he did know was pain.

But now he knew he had a friend.

* * *

Caleb was 32, and he was free. The word didn’t even feel real, but Veth got him out. He was weak and frail from his imprisonment, but Caleb was clever and picked up the rules of life on the run quickly. Veth could never stay with him long but was always making sure he was okay. It was a hard life, but he loved it.

He was free.

* * *

Jester waited outside a few blocks away from the hospital pacing. She knew where Caleb was, but she couldn’t just charge in there without knowing anything. If Jester screwed up again, she’d just be putting Caleb in more danger. Finally, Nott showed up.

"How is he?" the little goblin asked. She looked nervous and kept worrying the buttons of her necklace.

"It said that he was scared and then it became just fuzz," Jester said. "But it said that he was at the old hospital, but that place has been abandoned for years."

Nott blanched. "Oh no. It hasn’t been abandoned at all."

"What? What do you mean?" Jester asked.

"It just a false front. For secret experiments and the like. For improving scaring technology and stuff," Nott said. "If Caleb's there, then it's Ikithon's doing."

Jester bit her lip. "So is that where you met Caleb?"

Nott nodded. "He was a test subject. Trying to see if we could make a human's fear more potent. I really wasn't involved with that experiment. I was just at the hospital as a gopher bringing in compounds from the apothecary and bringing back reports to headquarters. Didn't really think anything of it at first. Then I saw, no heard, Caleb scream. He was still Bren back then though."

"Scream?" Jester asked. She didn't like the sound of that.

"Ikithon had him practically tied down. Bren, Caleb, seemed so small there. What was being done to him was wrong. Even if he was just a human, it was wrong. So I decided to do something about. At first I was just leaving him little notes, checking on him and then trying to cheer him up. But that wasn't enough, not really, so I broke him out," Nott said. "It wasn't much, but I had to do something."

Jester shook her head. "No, you did everything for him. His freedom means so much to him and you gave it to him, Nott. I think that's a lot."

Nott grinned at her. "I guess so. But I was lucky to get Caleb out the first time. I don't think that Ikithon is going to let me do that a second time. Security's probably going to be a nightmare."

"A nightmare?" Jester laughed. It was forced even to her own ears. "Nott, I'm a scarer. Nightmares are my job."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, pay attention to the 'body horror' tag. It comes into play this chapter, but I hope you still enjoy it.

Caleb focused on keeping his breath even, on keeping calm and trying to deny the fear creeping up on him. Ikithon wanted him to be afraid, and there was no way Caleb was going to give him what he wanted. Unfortunately, Caleb was terrified. Everything about the room haunted his nightmares, and it was all Caleb could do to keep himself from whimpering like a child.

"Well, let's see how you are doing," Ikithon said entering Caleb's room. He tapped on the current iv bag dripping solution into Caleb. "You know, at first you were a complete failure. I was furious with how you'd turn out negative result after negative result. But then I realized that I was looking for the wrong results." Ikithon turned off the drip of the iv bag and unhooked it. "See, you were supposed to be a greater unending resource of fear, but you weren't. Certainly you were scared; you're very good at being afraid, but your fear was very pedestrian. A disappointment really." Picking up an IV bag filled with a dark sludgy mixture, he hooked it up to Caleb. "But then I thought to look for something else in you. And oh it turned out that you were fun of all sorts of mysteries and answers we never thought to ask." He flicked on the switch for the IV drip. "And then you left me." Anger and hatred dripped from his voice. "You've caused a bunch of delays, I'll have you know."

Caleb watched as the sludge went through the clear tube towards his arm. It was slower than most of what Ikithon saw fit to inject into him.

Ikithon chuckled as Caleb squirmed trying to get away from the inevitable. "Really, you should've learned by now that struggling doesn't change anything. I mean it's amusing to watch, but that's not what I'm here for, not really. But for all my complaints, your escape taught me some things. Most of them about doing proper screenings on security, but your return shown me things that I wouldn't have dared test. You're very adventurous to try monster food. Most humans would've gotten violently ill before they ate even half as much as you did. But you're not entirely human anymore now are you, Bren."

Freezing, Caleb stared at him. A thousand questions ran through his mind, but the cursed gag stopped them all. The sludgy solution from the IV enter his vein and a hot pain went through him. He shook uncontrollably covered in sweat. "There's no point in fighting it," Ikithon said. "It will run its course no matter what. Now, there's something I must attend to, but I'll be back by the time you're done." He patted the IV bag.

Bile rose up in Caleb's throat, but he forced it back down. Being sick with the gag was not an experience that Caleb wanted to repeat. His brain was in a fog and he tried to focus, but all he could think of was the pain. Hands touched his arm and he tried to pull away. "Caleb, Caleb, it's okay, it's me." Caleb squinted to see a blue face. Jester. She took the gag out of his mouth and pulled the needle out of his arm. The IV bag was already empty. More time must’ve passed than he had realized.

Caleb tried to sit up, but he fell back down onto the bed. "You found me." His voice was dry and croaky. "You actually found me."

"Of course I did," Jester said.

"I'm sorry no one found you. You shoulda been found." Caleb could feel himself rambling, but he couldn't stop his tongue. "I shoulda found you."

Jester carefully picked Caleb up lifting him out of the bed. "You weren't even in the monster world, Caleb."

"Caleb, that's my name," he said clinging to Jester like a lifeline. "Caleb should've found you."

"Well, Caleb's found me now. Caleb's a very good friend," Jester said gently.

Caleb shuddered in her arms. The shaking still hadn't gone away. "No, he's not. He’s not a good thing.” He looked up at her. “You're blue." His head hurt and everything felt fuzzy.

"Yes, I am blue."

He rested his head on her shoulder. "Blue's favorite."

"Yeah?"

“I like Jester.” Caleb had trouble quite remembering where he was, but everything hurt and he liked whatever was holding him.

There was a pause. “Oh, well, Jester likes you too.”

He tried to move his hand, but it was a thousand pounds and too heavy for him. “She shouldn’t. ‘M bad.” His head dropped down and he couldn’t lift it.

“Caleb. Caleb!” The voice was pretty but scared.

His tongue was itchy, thick and hurt, but he managed a hum of acknowledgement.

“Oh, don’t scare me like that. I know it’s my fault Ikithon got you again, but I need you to be okay.”

He wanted to tell her something, but he couldn’t think of what it was and his mouth wouldn’t open. Instead his mouth ached and he was certain his teeth were falling out. A pressure built up in his head until it felt like it was splitting. Like a hot whip, a searing pain burned along his spine. Instead of fingers, it felt like he had blades shoved into his hands. Then suddenly everything was so much pain all he could see was white.

And then the pain cleared, and Jester was looking down at Caleb her eyes wide with concern and fear. “Caleb,” she gasped.

Caleb stared at his hands. His fingers were replaced with long, sharp claws. “Jester?” It came out messy and slurred. Running his tongue over his teeth, Caleb discovered that they fangs, huge and fearsome. He looked up at Jester hoping for some explanation that would undo all of it.

“Caleb,” she said, her voice full of confusion and care, “you’re a monster.”

* * *

Jester still held Caleb in her arms. It didn’t make sense. None of it made any sense. Caleb was human, and humans did not just become monsters. The only explanation she could come up with was Ikithon must’ve done something to him with all those tubes and syringes. But it shouldn’t have been possible.

Caleb stared down at his hands in disbelief. No longer were there pupils in his eyes; instead just blueness. Four pairs of tiny horns protruded out of his hair. Jester had to adjust her grip on Caleb for the bony protrusions jutting out of his back. A bristly tail hung limpy from the base of his spine. She had never seen monster quite like him before but he wouldn't have stuck out of a crowd.

"Well," Jester said trying to look on the positive side, "You're a very handsome monster."

He just looked up at her wanly.

"Sorry. But I thought you should know." Jester wished there was something that she could do for him. She couldn't imagine what it must have felt like. What would she do if she were suddenly a human? Probably cry. "Are you okay?"

"I-" but it just sounded like he had a bunch of snakes in his mouth and long thin tongue slipped out from behind his large fangs. Caleb ran his hand through his hair and stopped when he got to the horns. The look he gave Jester was heartbreaking.

Jester pushed down the dread in her heart and smiled at Caleb softly. "I'll get you out of here."

"Will you now?" a voice said behind her. Jester turned around to see Ikithon. "I believe you have my property there and must request that you put it back where you found it."

"You have no right," Jester said. "He's not yours, he's a human being and shouldn't be here."

Ikithon chuckled. "I believe you mean monster. Or rather a hybrid, I suppose. Don't believe I've gotten rid of all the human from him, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not like I was trying to just make a monster. Any two monsters can do that."

Caleb shuddered in Jester's arms. "You," he said.

"I? I gave you a gift. You don't need to fear anything now. You are something new and marvelous," Ikithon said. "True, you don't have much purpose in the world, but for science, you will show us so many new possibilities."

"Change him back." Jester stared down at Ikithon.

Ikithon gave her a look of disgust. "Why in the world would I do that? Not that I could, but there's so many tests we can do on him. We can see what the true divide and difference between humans and monsters is. Bren is the answers to all the questions we never thought to ask."

"He's not Bren and he's not yours!" Jester shouted. Caleb gripped her arm accidentally scratching her, but she didn’t mind.

"Then whose is he? Something like him has no place in the world. Hybrids like him are unnatural and get rejected by the world. It is my place to care for him as no one else will," Ikithon said it like he was doing a grand and noble thing he was doing.

Jester looked down at Caleb. He looked so small and dejected in her arms staring still at his hands. "I will," Jester said. "He can be mine and I will care for him." She smiled at Caleb and the shock on his face. "It wouldn't be a hard thing to do."

Ikithon made a sour face. "You are a fool if you think you could be happy with a thing like that. He was a human. A creature capable of the most terrible things. His kind kill and destroy for fun."

"And you don't?" Caleb asked. His tongue would slip out of his mouth long and thin and he tripped over his words, but Caleb kept going. "You've destroyed everything you've touched. My mother, my father, me! You are are just as bad as a human."

Ikithon shook his head chuckling softly. "I'm a monster and am as nature made me. Humans are supposed to be more."

"Jester is more. She's more than anyone can ask for." Caleb looked up at Jester with the softest look in his eyes and shifted to get out of her arms. She let him down, but Jester kept an arm around Caleb hardly believing the kind words he was saying about her. "You can't say that to be monster is to be horrible if she is one. Nothing that is even slightly like her can claim to be awful by nature. Your evils are entirely by your own doing!" Ikithon snarled showing off his fangs. They weren't as big as Jester's or Caleb's, and Caleb just laughed. "You're nothing! I was an idiot to be scared of you. What are you?! Just an old man with a needle!"

"Watch your tongue, you filthy thing!" Ikithon spat. "I can destroy you without a second thought."

Caleb's legs were shaking and he leaned most of his weight against Jester, but he held his head up like he was a noble king. "You're the one that made a filthy thing. How does that reflect on you? A doddering old fool wasting his time on a pointless folly."

"And Caleb's not filthy," Jester added feeling like she needed to say something.

Caleb glanced at Jester and barely shook his head. He returned his glare to Ikithon. “What are you? A monster? Ha, you are nothing.”

With a wordless roar, Ikithon launched himself at Caleb. "Run!" Caleb said shoving himself away from Jester. Ikithon tackled Caleb and the two tumbled head over heels crashing into tables of medical equipment. Jester backed away almost frozen with fear. With loud snarls and growls Caleb clawed at Ikithon, but the old monster's scales were too thick to break through.

Ikithon laughed mirthlessly as his hands wrapped around Caleb's neck. "You stupid boy. Not even a monster for five minutes and you try to pick a fight. I should've never wasted my time with you. Oh well, I can still learn from an autopsy.”

Jester looked around in a hurry and grabbed the first thing she could find, a clipboard, and slammed it against Ikithon’s shoulder.

He hissed out in annoyance, but his hands remained firmly around Caleb's throat as Caleb turned blue. "Idiot! Don't think you'll get away with this. I'll have my revenge on you, but first I'll dispose of this filth!"

"Caleb isn't filthy!" Jester yelled kicking Ikithon in the head.

The old man stumbled and his grip on Caleb loosened.

Jester grabbed Caleb and dragged him and and towards the door. "You were supposed to run," Caleb said coughing.

"You're my responsibility. I wasn't going to leave you." Jester tried to open the door only to find it locked.

"Did you think I was foolish enough to let you escape?" Ikithon asked. "I wasn't going to do that. Now you're going to just give up quietly and no one is going to get hurt."

Jester glared at him showing her fangs. "Why would I do that? I’m not dumb enough to believe you. You're not getting Caleb!"

"I wasn't talking to you," Ikithon snarled. "You want her to stay safe, don't you?"

Caleb nodded and approached Ikithon his fists clenched to his sides.

"Caleb! Don't'!" Jester screamed. "There's a better way! There has to be."

Ikithon smirked at Caleb returned to him. "I knew you'd listen to reason. Always were a soft one, weren't you?"

Caleb just nodded. "She'll be safe, right?"

"She’ll rest in peace," Ikithon said. He laughed at Caleb's glare. "I can’t let her run about revealing what I’ve been doing here, can I? A man has to keep his secrets."

Caleb glared at him and then started coughing so hard that he doubled over low to the floor.

"Get up!” Ikithon demanded. Jester started to move forward, but Ikithon held up a hand. "Make another move and I will kill him right where he stands."

Jester stood back fighting the tears.

Caleb pushed himself up off the ground and stood up leaning against the wall. He was panting with exertion.

"A weak thing, aren't you," Ikithon said.

Caleb nodded and then lightning fast jabbed two needles into each side of Ikithon's neck. Ikithon clawed at the needles as Caleb sunk down the plungers. With a gasp, Ikithon sunk down to the ground and then fell over.

"You knocked him out!" Jester said. "We gotta get out." She knelt down next to Ikithon and took the key to the door out of his pocket.

Caleb shook his head slowly staring down at Ikithon. "No, not knocked out."

Jester froze half way through unlocking the door. "You killed him?"

"Yes." He stared down at Ikithon silently. “He was going to kill you.”

“He was going to kill you too, Caleb.” Jester lightly put her hand on Caleb’s shoulder and turned him away from the dead body.

Caleb followed her numbly to the door. “I just killed a man. What am I?”

“You’re Caleb and my friend. You were hurt bad by a bad monster and now you’re a good monster,” Jester said as she unlocked it letting them out.

“Am I a good monster?” Caleb asked looking incredibly lost and hurt.

Jester grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze as she led him through the old abandoned hospital. It was late and Ikithon was the only one there, but Jester was starting to think that he had set that up to be a trap for them. “You’re a very good monster. And one that I’m going to take care of.”

Caleb shook his head weakly. “You don’t have to. I can take care of myself.”

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Monsters aren’t supposed to be alone. And neither are humans, and I think that that goes for hybrids like you,” Jester said double checking the halls just in case someone else was there. Nott should be up at the front of the hospital gathering evidence of the illegal experiments Ikithon was running. “Besides, I don’t think you can take care of yourself. Do you know anything about being a monster?”

Caleb let out half a chuckle. “You have a point there. But it doesn’t have to be you.”

Jester pouted at him. “I gave Ikithon my word that I’d take care of you.”

“And you always keep your word?” Caleb asked.

Jester nodded. “I do. Besides, there’s kind of another reason why I want to.”

“And what is that?”

Before Jester could lose her nerve, she kissed Caleb on the cheek. “I like you.”

Caleb’s cheeks and horns turned red and he sputtered. “I like you too,” he said, ducking his head down. Jester laughed and hooked her tail around Caleb’s. His eyes went wide with surprise. “Oh, oh, I could get used to this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... monster Caleb ... good ...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EPILOGUE!! I hope you all enjoyed this fic. I kinda came out of nowhere for me, but was fun to write anyways. Thanks for reading!

It was a slow day at the Brenatto Apothecary. Caleb bit back the urge to sigh behind the counter. He liked his job there, and he was grateful for it and the room and board Yeza and Nott threw in for him(though sometimes Caleb wondered if they did it just so they could have Caleb as a built in babysitter for Luc), but on quiet days, it could be brain numbingly dull.

"How you doing out there?" Yeza asked from the back. Caleb had a feeling that Yeza was grateful that Caleb was now able to work the front of the store and that the chemist could now focus on the inventory and not having to be sociable with the customers in the front.

"Just fine," Caleb said. He was easier to understand now than when he had first became a monster three months ago, but Caleb struggled with kicking his lisp entirely. Jester and Nott insisted that it was cute and endearing, but Caleb wasn't so sure that he took their word for it. "Are you sure you don't need any help back there?"

There was a clang followed by a small BANG! from the back. "Doing just fine! Nothing to worry about!"

"If you say so." Caleb went back to reorganizing the shelves for the 6th time that day. He no longers was stabbing every box he touched and scratching all the bottles. And he had to admit that his claws weren't as much as a hindrance as he was afraid that they would be. His typing speed had actually gone up since he was no longer human. Also they were long enough for Jester to have plenty of fun painting them, so Caleb came to like them fast. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the bony protrusions coming out of his back. All they were good for was making him sleep on his stomach.

The bell jangled over the door and a pair of customers came in. For once Caleb was grateful for customers interrupting him and then he recognized them. They were a tall pale woman monster and a purple monster with curling rams horns on the side of his head. The purple monster made a beeline for Caleb. "Hello there. I was wondering if you had anything for polishing horns."

"Not this week, Mollymauk," Caleb said.

Mollymauk pouted. "How many times have I had to tell you that it's Molly?"

"Probably a countless number," Caleb said. "What can I do for you two?"

"Well, Yasha wanted to see if you-" Molly gave up under Caleb's stare. "Alright, I was bored and was wondering if Jester was available to play."

Caleb shook his head. Jester often hung out around the apothecary to make sure that Caleb was okay there. "Not today. She's over at the protest today with Nott."

"Another human rights one?" Molly asked. 

"Ja," Caleb said not looking up from the fang paste. "This one is for better regulations of scaring."

Yasha picked up a tube of scale ointment. "I thought Jester was a scarer."

Caleb stood up and went to the next aisle. "She is, but she still thinks that there needs to be better regulations as some monsters don't care about their human victims."

"And what do you think about it?" Molly asked. "I've never seen you at a protest."

Caleb shrugged. "Too big of crowds for my taste." While that was true, it was awkward to be an activist for a separate species that he was technically part of. "But I think that it's a good cause. I'm proud of her."

Molly smirked. "I'm sure you are. So have you two finally started dating yet?"

"Molly," Yasha said with a hint of warning while Caleb sputtered.

"What? I'm just making conversation," Molly said. "Besides, we all know that they're going to start dating eventually, get married, and have a dozen little brats."

Caleb rolled his eyes. "It's not any of your business. We're taking our time before rushing into anything."

The door slammed open to the apothecary. "How's the best boyfriend ever!?" Jester shouted.

"Taking your time," Molly said with a smirk.

Jester skipped over and planted a big kiss on Claeb's cheek curling her tail around his. "Hi Molly! Having fun teasing Caleb?"

Molly did an over the top bow to Jester. "But of course. Somebody has to keep him entertained while you are gone. Now what's this about Caleb being your boyfriend?"

"It's none of your business," Nott said following Jester in. "But he finally got the nerve up to ask her out."

Caleb held his head in his hands. "Have none of you ever heard of privacy?"

"Nope!" Molly said cheerfully.

"You're not embarrassed by me, are you Caleb?" Jester asked.

Caleb looked up shaking his head. "Nein. Never. Our friends though are a different story."

Molly swooned dramatically. "I'm wounded."

"Caleb, you're a handsome young man who can get any girl or guy you want. You have to advertise that you're taken," Nott said.

Caleb looked over at Yasha who gave him a nod of sympathy. He bit down a groan and instead changed the subject. "How was the protest?"

Jester sat up on the counter. "Pretty neat. We’re trending on monstertwitter and Nott got interviewed.”

“Our own celebrity,” Molly said. 

“Yeza, can I please throw out these unruly hooligans?” Caleb asked.

Yeza poked his head out. “They look like fine upstanding hooligans to me. But you can send the short, cute one to the back.”

“Honey,” Nott said with a blush, but she went to the back of the shop anyways.

Molly leaned against the counter. “That reminds me. I saw an article on that Ickithong guy.”

“Ikithon,” Jester and Caleb corrected in unison. Caleb reached out his hand and Jester took it giving it a squeeze.

“Right. So they finally released his research and turns out he was making a human monster hybrid,” Molly said not noticing how pale Caleb had turned. “Pretty wild huh.”

Caleb nodded stiffly. “Ja, wild.”

“That’s not really possible,” Jester pointed out, but her grip on Caleb’s hand became tighter.

“Oh, I know that,” Molly said, “but this Ikithon apparently didn’t. But it makes you wonder, doesn’t it. What a human monster hybrid would be like?”

Yasha stared out the window. “I think it’d be lonely.”

Molly looked over at Yasha. “I suppose you’re right. Probably be a hideous thing. Certainly wouldn’t envy it.”

“I think if I were it,” Caleb said, “I would hide. I’d find the darkest, deepest place and bury myself there.”

“You must be a delight at parties. You know what? I change my mind, if I were it, I'd do pornos," Molly said.

Jester snorted a laugh. "I'd love to see that."

Caleb went pale. "I wouldn't."

"I guess you have a point there," Jester said. "But I think that if there really was such a person, I'd want them to be happy. Like us."

Molly ruffled Jester's hair. "You would say that. Well, we gotta get going." He waved goodbye and swept out of the store with Yasha following silently behind him.

"See you two later. Say bye to Nott for me," she said softly.

"Will do!" Jester said cheerfully. She then turned back to Caleb. “Find the darkest, deepest place and bury yourself there? You don’t really want to do that do you?”

Caleb blanched. “I was trying to throw them off the trail. I know that if I ever tried anything like that you’d dig me back up.”

Jester gave him a big grin and gave his tail a squeeze. “You got that right.”

He kissed her cheek catching the corner of her mouth. “And I would do the same for you.”

“I know.” Jester returned the kiss. “But you won’t have to.”

Caleb gave it some thought. “You won’t either.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue if I should continue this or not. Like no clue? This was supposed to be a one-shot, but I might have to continue it.


End file.
